The Member of Parliament for Effutu , Alex Afenyo-Markin is making a potentially controversial call for the immediate withdrawal of thousands of certificates issued by the University of Education, Winneba since 2013.

He argues that such certificates and degrees have been vicariously invalidated by the fact that an illegal University Council, as he puts it, caused them to be issued without proper legal authority.

The mandate of the University Council expired since 2013 but a silent presidential directive caused the members of the Council to continue to serve in apparent defiance of the law establishing the University.Alex Afenyo Markin said the sheer gravity of the alleged violation of the University’s enabling legislation effectively invalidates all the actions and decisions taken by the University Council since 2013, including the thousands of certificates and degrees issued over the period.

He is also asking for an immediate refund of all public funds paid to the members of the Council as employment benefits after their tenure expired in 2013.

“The University has been awarding degrees. This University is regulated by law.The Central government cannot at its whim and caprices, direct things to be done. That will be a serious indictment on our academic institution. Section 8 of the Act 672 , the enabling act is clear. The mandatory provision of the law does not allow any discretion from any quarters. Infact the President is not mentioned and Central government is not mentioned.

“The procedure for appointment is clearly spelt out and if for any reason government wanted to do otherwise the appropriate thing was to come for an amendment of the law. This law has not been amended since it was passed in 2004 so to tell Parliament that they were asked to stay on to engage in an illegality is a very serious matter.The wrong would have to be corrected. We cannot allow that …”

University to be reconstituted

Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman has told Parliament that the governing council for the University of Education, Winneba, will be reconstituted on June 29, this year.

Responding to Afenyo Markin’s concerns, the Minister explained that the old council is still in place because of the central government’s directive ordering it to carry on with their responsibilities until a new council is created.

“The date for the reconstitution of the University of Winneba is 29th June. One of the first things that we did in 2013 was to draw a calendar of all the expiry dates of all our Councils and at the same time take into consideration that this is the time to establish the permanent councils of all our colleges of education which still had temporary councils and so we are very much aware that it was in November of 2013 that the Council of University of Education at Winneba was going to expire but a directive came from the Central government that all councils whose terms were going to expire should hold on. They were mandated to carry on their responsibilities until new councils were established. “